Who is the leader of Dorset County Council?

Conservative councillor Spencer Flower was elected leader of Dorset County Council in May 2013 for the next four years.

He was the leader of East Dorset District Council and had been in the position for five years.

Cllr Flower has spent his working life in engineering, 10 years of which were in various line management roles, followed by 21 years as Managing Director for two engineering companies.

During that time he was described as ‘taking quite radical decisions’ to cope with the council’s financial challenges.

Cllr Flower was chosen at an annual council meeting following the county elections.

He replaced Angus Campbell who said he was ‘stepping down to give someone else a chance’ after seven years as leader and added that the authority would benefit from ‘new people with new ideas’.

The leader chairs all meetings of the council's cabinet and leads on policy development and implementation.

Elected as a district councillor in 1999, Cllr Flower was appointed leader of the district council nine years later in 2008.

He has an almost flawless attendance record for meetings with last year’s records showing he attended 95per cent of meetings.

He is the county councillor for Verwood and Three Legged Cross, district councillor for the Holt ward and town councillor for Verwood Town Council.

In his own blog, Cllr Flower wrote: “The public rightly demand high standards, hard work and a positive approach from their local Councils; I believe that in Dorset whilst there are sometimes difficult choices to make we are doing the right things to build a better more sustainable future.”

Cllr Flower does not get paid a salary by the county council but can claim expenses.

Last year for 2012/2013 he claimed a total of £42,846 across two councils.

At Dorset County Council he claimed £22,476 – of which £20,370 is the basic allowance and £2,106 was mileage.

For East Dorset District Council he claimed £15,576.65 – which includes £10,121.41 for the special responsibility of leader